Nixon by Nixon (Your Opinion, Please)

[H2O Man]

“Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words” will be featured on HBO tonight (9pm/est). I would strongly recommend that everyone who is able -- though I realize not everyone has access to HBO -- watch this documentary. Invite yourself over to a neighbor’s, a friend’s, or a relative’s house, if need be. Even watch it with your redneck uncle, if you have to. It will definitely be worth it.

Here is a link to a Washington Post article about the documentary:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/hbos-nixon-by-nixon-on-tape-the-heart-of-darkness/2014/08/03/42a7355c-1926-11e4-85b6-c1451e622637_story.html

There are several books that have been released to generate sales during the 40th anniversary of Nixon’s historic resignation. They have value. No question about that.

But more important, by far, is for citizens -- you and I -- to listen to the tapes that Richard Nixon never dreamed would come back to haunt him. The interpretation of these strange recordings should not be left to historians alone: our Constitutional democracy depends upon our understanding of corruption in Washington, DC.

I will say that I feel particularly strongly about this, because I understand that one of the primary duties of the United States Senate is to educate the American public. And, for a brief season, the Senate engaged in an effort to do exactly that. They may have been handcuffed, by both loyalty to the system that enriched them, and by fear of the darker forces that controlled the nation. But, again, for a brief time, the US Senate showed character --and not based upon party affiliation.

Last week, we had an intense OP/thread discussion of 1968. In that same spirit, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Nixon, Watergate, the Congressional investigations, and the resignation.

Thank you,
H2O Man

[randys1]

1. will record it but when I see Nixon I want to do what Hunter S Thompson did

and i dont have a doberman pincher

[H2O Man]

4. Ha!

He was a toxic human being. No question about that.

[PoliticAverse]

7. ...

[truebluegreen]

10. IIRC he wanted to drive to the White House and

throw a bag of live rats over the fence...don't recall the doberman.

[hifiguy]

15. That story is definitely true. The one about the bag of rats.

I grew up despising Nixon - my dad was an old union guy and the only Republican he ever liked was Ike. Little did we all know that Nixon was only the top layer of scum on the barrel of filth that the Republican party has become and that far, far worse was lurking beneath.

Now when you can make Richard Nixon actually look relatively good, you have really entered the Hall of Fame in the annals of evil.

[truebluegreen]

26. I agree totally.

I didn't think it was possible to make me "miss" Nixon, but the Rethugs have accomplished it.

[elleng]

2. Thanks.

[H2O Man]

5. You are welcome!

I remember that, 40 years ago this Friday night, my brother and I were recording a cassette tape to send to Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. We were so happy! Nixon personified the evil of the system.

[PoliticAverse]

3. Nixon didn't like Jews, as several of the tapes show...

http://whitehousetapes.net/clip/nixon-jews-are-born-spies

More: http://millercenter.org/search?q=jews

[H2O Man]

6. He hated most people,

and felt utter contempt for those he didn't hate.

[hifiguy]

16. I do not know what the proper psychological term would be for Nixon

and I doubt psychologists or psychiatrists would know, either. The man's mind was a writhing ball of toxic pathologies. Which is ultimately the thing that makes Nixon much more interesting than an "amiable" moron like Reagan or Chimpoleon. Unlike them, Nixon was more than smart enough to know the difference between right and wrong and the difference between the truth and a baldfaced lie.

I have probably read more about Nixon and Hitler than any other historical figures. The whys and hows of psyches that completely bent are intriguing on a very deep level.

[Octafish]

22. ...including women.

A rotten bastard in every way, the guy was a saint compared to Reagan and either Bush.

[JaneyVee]

24. Jews, Af.Americans and Liberals.

[pscot]

8. Those Senators were household names

by the time the hearing wound down. The whole country was glued to the television. It was bigger than OJ.

[Punkingal]

9. I was not at all surprised by the Watergate mess...

I always thought Nixon was sleazy, and I couldn't understand his political comeback. I mean, to my way of thinking, he had zero charisma, no personality, no charm, nothing. (Even that bastard Reagan could be charming, although he never charmed me.) I still don't understand it. I thought he was intelligent about policy and was certainly moderate compared to these idiots we have now, but I still didn't like him.

I was glued to the hearings every day, fascinated to see the system work as it was supposed to. Howard Baker and Barry Goldwater behaved like people in their position should have behaved. It was quite a cast of characters on parade...I especially remember John Dean and his lovely wife, and Butterfield who actually revealed the smoking gun of the secret tapes. I mean, what were they thinking????

I will never forget Nixon's self-pitying final speech before he left the White House and got on the helicopter. I don't think he was sorry for what he did, then, or ever. I felt sorry for Pat Nixon that day...I can still remember how she looked, frozen, with an expression of "I would rather be anywhere but here right now."

But I believe there are people in office today who don't give a damn what Nixon did and still resent his impeachment and are still resentful and exacting revenge...hence Clinton's impeachment and the threats to Obama of impeachment all the time.

[hifiguy]

17. i followed the Watergate hearings on the radio.

I was a teenager working at a car wash. I still remember my reaction and that of the whole country the day Butterfield casually let the tapes cat out of the bag. The nationwide "WTF???" was thunderous.

Nixon was truly a man without a conscience. He even lied to his own family until the very end.

[elleng]

11. WHAT AN SOB!

[H2O Man]

12. The documentary

caught his essence. So much for efforts to rehabilitate his reputation!

[elleng]

13. Indeed, Man.

And to think that I'd had some 'positive' thoughts about him.

[Voltaire]

14. I watched that and started hating him all over again

What cynical bastards he and his henchmen were. Just incredible, disgusting stuff on that tape. Further proof that the GOP is nothing but a crime organization. No more, no less.

[hifiguy]

19. In more ways than one.

Nixon was the instigator of the CIA-Mafia plots to assassinate Castro and one well-known investigative journalist has written an entire book about the (extremely thoroughly documented) Nixon/CIA/Mafia alliances. That writer's conclusion is that the Watergate burglaries were the result of Nixon's belief that Larry O'Brien had a copy of the secret report that detailed all of the Nixon/CIA/Mob connections to those plots and was desperate to get his hands on it and lock it away.

[NuclearDem]

18. Fall damnit, fall! Aroo!

[dmosh42]

20. I saw Nixon more for being a man of his times......

and yeah, he was sleazy and dishonest, but the gang from the LBJ camp weren't exactly the nice hometown boys. Domestically, LBJ did some great things to carry on the Kennedy ideas, but once he went for the expansion of the Vietnam conflict, all the lying, cheating scum from our military rose to the top and kept us going in that useless endeavor for all those years. I was an enlisted man on active duty from '60-64, and living in the US then, we still had confidence in our post WW2 leadership. But Truman and Ike were gone, but we though the new leaders were just as straight. Not so! Nixon seemed to understand how to play hard ball with the commies, and I thought he would get us out of Vietnam. And I actually gave him credit for his bombing of Cambodia and his visit to China. I believed that maybe made him more unpredictable to the USSR, and I think it made Hanoi maybe more open to the peace talks. I think I remember thinking that he must be a little nuts for feeling that he needed to worry about what the Dems were thinking and get involved with the Watergate fiasco. I think we'll be having to make some of the same type voting decisions in the coming years that we won't be happy with, but the alternative is to hand over the gov't to the oligarchists. Nixon actually looks pretty good next the these Republicans of today!

[Octafish]

21. Hope it talks about the ''Hard Hat Riot''

Just after the Ohio National Guard murders of four students at Kent State University, Nixon and his crew armed a mob of construction worker types to attack peaceful (anti-war) demonstrators in New York City.

[hifiguy]

23. Rick Perlstein's book "Nixonland"

makes a more-or-less airtight case that Nixon was the ur-source of today's divided society and the toxic politics of the Right.

[BeyondGeography]

28. I agree...his '68 campaign is the template

The appeals to fear and hatred based on race and gender not only won over white JFK voters (many of them union members), they got the right wing of the Republican party off his ass and on board, freeing him up to do some actual governing once he won. But, of course, as Perlstein points out, the tactics were a perfect fit with the man himself, who had plenty of hatred in his own tank, as he was never one of the cool kids. Nixonland is a great, lengthy book; well worth the time.

[hifiguy]

30. The best thing about it is that Perlstein

puts Nixon and Nixonism in the context of the times and shows how the divisions he so skilfully created and exploited remain at the basis of US politics today.

[Octafish]

29. Guy's a real pillar of society.

Thanks for the heads-up on Nixonland, hifiguy. The rise of the Reich was made possible by 8 years of Nixon-Ford treason.

As you know, I'd recommend Perlestein's analysis extend further into the past to the players who helped smear Helen Gahagan Douglas and give rise the First Old New Nixon.

Here's Dickie Old Chum with Prescott Old Chum:



These Old Money bastards are pillars of today's sick planet and sick society.

Here's Prescott Sr with Richard Milhous Rotschild:



Didn't know him from the country club, but that was Baron de Rothschild and Prescott Bush, sharing a moment and some information back in the day.

Not that it means anything untoward, but I've seen similar markings on the backs of official US Government photos. Probably a coincidence. Involving such pillars of society, it's certain nothing untoward was involved.

[hifiguy]

31. Dear old Prescott Bush.

Good pal of Fritz Thyssen and other financial backers of the Austrian Corporal with the Chaplin moustache. The Dulles brothers also had plenty of unsavory German associations that should have been better known.

[bigtree]

25. It was awesome in the revelation of his actual words hearing them coming from his mouth

. . . my wife thought it was a bit too kind, though, in the set-up surrounding that fine print at the top of the screen. I tend to agree, though it might bear watching again (not the first choice for another evening with my wife).

[eShirl]

27. One thing about Nixon puzzles me; I don't know if anyone knows the answer

How did a Quaker kid grow up to be Richard Nixon?

[hifiguy]

32. That really is the bedrock question

and one for which there will never be a definitive answer.

ETA: Fawn Brodie's "Richrd Nixon - The Shaping of his Character" is about as good an answer as you're going to get.

[Octafish]

33. Growing up, his family lost two boys to illness.

His mother was a saint. His dad named his boys after English kings. Nixon, he was broken.

[H2O Man]

34. His mother was

a strict, emotionally distant parent. Still, she was a far better parent than her husband.

Although I generally never agree with the war criminal Henry K, he was correct in noting that, had anyone loved him during his childhood, Richard Nixon could have been a great man. Instead, he was unlikable, and a creep.